An arrest in Pearland usually ends up in Angleton. Most of the city is in Brazoria County, so most Pearland cases are prosecuted by the Brazoria County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and heard at the county courthouse at 111 E. Locust Street, a half hour down 288. North Pearland is in Harris County and a slice of the west side is in Fort Bend, and an arrest on those sides of the line goes to 1201 Franklin in downtown Houston or to the Justice Center in Richmond. The county decides who prosecutes you and which programs you can apply for, so it’s the first thing we pin down.
Call (713) 664-4000. Everything you tell us is confidential.
From the Pearland jail to the Angleton courthouse
Pearland police book their arrests into the city jail at 2555 Cullen Parkway. A magistrate sets bond and the conditions that come with it, and if you can’t post it, you can be moved to the Brazoria County Jail at 3602 County Road 45 in Angleton. Arrests by sheriff’s deputies, or by DPS troopers on 288, usually go straight to the county jail.
Bond conditions can hurt you before your case is ever heard. On a second DWI, the law requires an ignition interlock as a condition of bond unless the magistrate finds it wouldn’t serve the interest of justice (Code of Criminal Procedure art. 17.441). A family violence arrest usually comes with a no-contact order, even when the person you’re accused of hurting wants you home. Break a condition and you can go back to jail on the same charge.
Misdemeanors, including a first or second DWI, are heard in the Brazoria County Courts at Law. Felonies go to the district courts. Both sit in the courthouse on Locust Street. A Class C ticket from a Pearland officer usually stays in Pearland Municipal Court.
A Pearland DWI
A first DWI is a Class B misdemeanor, with up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. A breath or blood result of 0.15 or higher makes it a Class A (Penal Code § 49.04). A second DWI is a Class A, and a third is a felony (§ 49.09).
Your license is a separate fight, and it starts right away. DPS moves to suspend it through an Administrative License Revocation, and you have 15 days from the notice to request a hearing (Transportation Code §§ 524.031, 724.041). Miss that and the suspension starts on the 40th day. Ask for the hearing and we can subpoena the arresting officer and question him under oath about the stop and the tests, months before a jury ever sees the case.
Since 2019, a first DWI can end in deferred adjudication if the test result was under 0.15 and you don’t hold a commercial driver’s license (Code of Criminal Procedure art. 42A.102). Finish it and you avoid a conviction, though it still counts as a prior if you’re ever charged with DWI again (Penal Code § 49.09(g)). But deferred is a fallback. We start by looking for the reasons the case shouldn’t exist at all: a stop with no legal basis, field sobriety tests run wrong, a breath instrument out of compliance or a blood sample with a gap in its chain of custody.
Jay Blass Cohen is a certified Drug Recognition Expert and a Standardized Field Sobriety Testing instructor. The American Chemical Society certifies him as a Forensic Lawyer-Scientist. He was trained on the same roadside tests the officer gave you, and he knows the chemistry behind the breath and blood results well enough to show a jury where they went wrong. See our DWI defense page for more.
Pretrial diversion in Brazoria County
Brazoria County’s pretrial diversion program ends with the DA tendering a dismissal and agreeing not to oppose an expunction, so your record can be cleared. The DA doesn’t have to let you in. Its own guidelines say there’s no right to participate and no appeal from a rejection. Your lawyer has to deliver the application to the DA’s office in person, with a letter of representation, and the office answers within 30 days.
Sex offenses are excluded, and so are cases where a deadly weapon was used or shown. The same goes for a case with a vulnerable victim like a child or an elderly person, and for anyone who’s had a probation revoked. You’ll need proof of work or school (an active job search can count), and restitution has to be paid in full before you start. A $500 fee is due on approval. Past the exclusions, it comes down to what the application says about you and how it’s argued. We write it to be approved.
What we defend in Pearland
We handle assault and family violence cases, drug charges from possession to trafficking, sex offenses, weapons charges and probation violations, along with DWI. When a charge is dismissed outright or ends in an acquittal, we clear the record through an expunction. A dismissal doesn’t take the arrest off your record on its own. Someone has to file for that.
Results
A Harris County jury acquitted one of our clients of DWI after a .242 breath test. A felony third DWI was dismissed after the judge granted the motion to suppress, with Jay as co-counsel. See more of our criminal case results. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Arrested in Pearland? Call Blass Law
Jay Blass Cohen has defended criminal cases in Houston since 2009 and has never worked for the prosecution. We take cases in Brazoria County and across the Houston area, and we prepare every case as if it’s going to trial, because that’s what moves a prosecutor off a bad offer. If you were hurt in a crash instead, see our Pearland car accident page.
Call (713) 664-4000. If the arrest was in the last 15 days, call today, before the license deadline runs.
Reviewed by Jay Blass Cohen, founder of Blass Law PLLC, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, certified Drug Recognition Expert, and SFST instructor, serving Houston since 2009. This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.